Hey PvK, et al:
I've been using a modified Version of Proportions 2.5.3. So far, I like it a lot. You've put a lot of time and effort into this mod and it really shows. I had been hunting for a mod to use as basis for a mod of my own and Proportions seems to work out really well for it.
For my mod, I've sped up colonization a little and I've added in some components and whatnot from a few other mods (mostly from Devnull). I've also added in a number of 'human-only' items that we can use in multiplayer games, but that I dont want to have to worry about the AI getting tripped up by.
One thing that I've noticed in Proportions is how good of a buy the Torpedo Techs are. They are cheap to research and do a lot of 'up front' damage which, in keeping with your discussion below, seems key. Given the way the tech cost progression increases geometrically and how the bulk of an empire's research points are coming from the Homeworld (and thus, available at start), it seems that the 10000 point cost makes Torps an obvious choice. You can have Torpedo IV (a powerful weapon) for less cost that of level III in a number of other weapons and the progression only gets worse the higher it goes.
The lower 'startup costs' seem key in this mod because your research points arent increasing at the same rate as the costs for higher level techs (ie, a lot of the research points are 'front-loaded'). I've modded in a negative on the Torp's accuracy to compensate. This leaves them with the feeling of capital ship killers (along with their high damage numbers which is good for punching through emissive effects) but prevents them from being the obvious choice in the early game. Has anyone else noticed Torps as a good buy or is everyone just used to them being useless in the basic tech set and not really bothered with them?
Is there some updated listing of how emissive armor works now? I remember threads on it ages ago, but I'm sure they are outdated with the newer patches. Do emissive effects stack or is it only the highest...ie, if I have 2 Armored Hulls (11 Emissive each), do I have 22 total? Does it stack from different component (ie, 1 Armored Structure giving 1 + the Hull giving 11 = 12?)? I also wasnt aware that Emissive effects were 'global'. I was under the impression that the Emissive component had to be 'hit' for the damage reduction to apply. Has this been thoroughly tested and confirmed?
Thanx for any input/answers on the above!
Talenn